Something Rhymes with Purple - Just A Minute

Episode Date: October 12, 2021

Testing, testing… one-two, one-two. Turn your wireless to the correct frequency and then turn it up as this week we bring you the terminology behind the world of radio.  Discover the agricultural origins of the word ‘broadcast’, learn the difference between wet and dry audio, and find out why a bed is not for sleeping in and a disco isn’t an opportunity to dance.  Elsewhere Susie’s got a fantastic trio of words to add to your vocabulary, we learn about Gyles’ first job in radio, and we’ve got a very special poem from a Purple Person.  If you have a question for Gyles and Susie then please do email us on [e-mail]  A Somethin’ Else production  Susie’s Trio: Cromulent - acceptable or legitimate Pooter - a suction bottle used for collecting specimens Rawky - foggy, damp, and a little bit chilly  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Something else. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Hello and a warm welcome to our podcast, Something Rhymes with Purple, presented by the world's greatest lexicographer, that's Susie Dent. Not that she describes herself as that, but I do because it's true. And by me, Giles Brandreth. And today we're podcasting, but it reminds me that the word podcast is quite new and it's a successor, I suppose, to the word broadcast. How long has the word broadcast been around, Susie? Well, it's the 19th century, Giles, and it means to scatter seed with the hand. So it was literally casting seeds with a broad range or a broad stroke, if you like. And then it meant to scatter or disseminate widely. And then in the 1920s, it meant to disseminate a message or news

or musical performance or anything that was kind of audible or visible, including radio and TV. And how long has the word podcast been with us? Podcast, I would say probably 1990s, early 2000s. Here we go. Yes, 2004, actually, a little bit later than I thought. And obviously that is from iPod and cast as in broadcast. Very good. Well, here we are broadcasting on our podcast. And I'm thinking about broadcasting because radio programmes since the 1960s. But I suppose the longest running programme on which I've been a regular contributor is something called Just a Minute on Radio 4. And it's listened to, I'm pleased to say, around the world. You've heard this programme, haven't you, Susie? I love Just a Minute. Yes, I grew up with Just a Minute.

It was one of my favourites. It is one of my favourites and my mum's actually. So, yeah, very much comfort radio for me. Have have you taken part have you ever been a contestant no i would be hopeless well you wouldn't be hopeless you'd be very very good but it is trickier than it sounds because look i've already broken the rules i said very very let me see if i can talk about um the world of broadcasting the world of radio uh for 60 seconds the rule you can buzz in because the rules of the game are if you don't't know this game, you've got to try to speak for just a minute, 60 seconds, up to 60 seconds, without repetition, deviation or hesitation. And the real challenge, for example, if you're going to talk about the BBC, is you're already repeating the letter B, so I'd be out immediately. So let's give it a go.

Here's Giles with 60 seconds. And I hope you've got your stopwatch starting. Hang on a second. I need to start the stopwatch. Start the stopwatch now. And this is where I would be hopeless because you can't have ums or ahs, can you? And I have too many of those. So you're not allowed any white noise at all. Right. I just used an um. Starting now. I love the world of radio because for me, sounds coming in through the ears fill the mind and the imagination and make me happy and also can offer stimulation.

I first took part in a radio program in the 1960s. It was something called Woman's Hour. It made me wonder why there's never been a program for men with a similar title. Then I came and found I was on Just a Minute, a programme originally presented by Nicholas Parsons. Oops. Repetition of programme. Oh, well done. You've caught me out. I'm not going to take over. So carry on. I want to hear. I want to hear what happened. I just did that because I've always wanted to interrupt. Go for it. Now it's Sue Perkins who is in the chair and quite brilliant.

I still love it. But what intrigues me and what I'm going to be talking to Susie Dent about now is some of the words from the world of radio. Who invented it? And is the language of the wireless, the crystal set, these early forms... Beep, beep, beep, beep. No, that wasn't an interruption. That was the bell. Oh, good. Very good. Excellent stuff. Well, not very good. No, it is very good because you have to actually be very good

with the thesaurus, don't you? I've noticed that before. Paul Merton is excellent with his synonyms because you can't actually repeat what went before. That was excellent. That's the challenge. Well, let's dig down into the language of radio. I mean, the radio as we know it was

invented, I think, by an Italian, Marconi, 1874, 1937. I think he invented the concept in the mid 1890s. And it began to be used commercially around the turn of the 20th century. But of course, it was when radio stations such as the British Broadcast Company were created in the early 1920s and then eventually became the BBC, as we now know it in the 1920s. That's when it became popular. I mean, extraordinary phenomenon. The word radio, though, why is it called a radio? It's from the Latin radius, which means a ray or a beam. So that was all a nod to the technology. I mean, in fact, quite a lot of the words that we use in

radio go back to Latin. Frequency is another word because that is from Latin frequentum, which meant repeated or in great numbers or sort of numerous. And obviously, that's how we use frequency today. But we also use it for your spot, I suppose, or your position on the radio waves, which are also populated by other radio stations. I'm interested in the way the word radio now has become common, because when I was a child, it was known as the wireless. And I think as a little boy, I know as a little boy in the 1950s, I would lie in bed listening on my crystal set and I would listen to radio comedy. That's when I first heard the voices of people like Frankie Howard, Tony Hancock, Kenneth Williams.

And there was a show I loved called Take It From Here, which had a sketch each week about a family known as the Glums. Pa Glum was played by Jimmy Edwards. Yes. Big battle chested man. With a big beard. Oh no, big moustaches. With a beard and a moustache. Big moustache, yes.

Huge, called RAF type. Handlebar. Handlebar moustache. He'd been in the RAF during the war and he was known as Professor Jimmy Edwards because he'd been to university. And from 1953, playing the part of his daughter in this sketch was the lovely June Whitfield, who I later got to know, of course, latterly most famous as the granny in Absolutely Fabulous. But she was on the radio in 1953 playing Eth, Jimmy Edwards' daughter.

Oh, Ron, beloved. Yes, Eth, said the boyfriend. Anyway, the point is wireless was also used to describe a radio. Wireless simply means there was no... There was no wires, but you've just made me think of something, which is Cat's Whisker. Oh, yes. So, you know, today we talk about the Cat's Whiskers

as the kind of acme of excellence, and there were so many riffs on the same theme. So we've got the Cat's Pyjamas, but there were some lovely ones like the Elephant's Adenoids or the Kipper's knickers and so on. The bee's knees. The bee's knees is a famous one. So cat's whisker actually was originally a fine copper or gold wire in a crystal wireless receiver or in types of electronic circuit.

So it was already there as a phrase and then was sort of picked up and popularized to mean you know as we say the sort of the ultimate in something so um i i love that but yes the wireless is just simply because there is are no wires and we talk about wireless technology meaning something different today all the time i i just think if anybody can finally nail dispensing with charges so they're not every single thing that we use in our lives. Even with Bluetooth, you have to charge the thing that gives you Bluetooth. I mean, it drives me up the wall.

Somebody please get rid of charges once and for all. That's my plea. Well, you see, you're now using very new words like Bluetooth. But going back to the early days of radio, I remember a word that I never understood. Hertz, H-E-R-T-Z.

What has that got to do with radio? For Hertz, I think the technicians amongst our purple listeners will correct me if I'm wrong on this. But I think it's a unit of frequency which is equal to one cycle per second. And there was a German physicist, I do know this, Heinrich Hertz, who was the first person to identify them and then explore them. We have FM and AM, don't we, for frequency modulation and amplitude modulation. I didn't know that was that's what they stood for. FM, AM, frequency modulation. And what was the other one?

Amplitude modulation. But do you remember Jasper Carrot? Well, again, it's too technological for me to even go into. But I would prefer to stay with Jasper Carrot because he had his own versions, which I think were brilliant. And he said Jasper Carrot is a very funny British comedian. And he once said, I'm amazed at DJs today. I am firmly convinced that AM stands for absolute moron.

I will not begin to tell you what FM stands for. So, yes, obviously he didn't have such a high opinion of the riders of the airwaves back in the 1980s. But yeah, so we need to get into disc jockey and all of those things. But technologically- There's long wave and short, I mean, FM and AM. Before that, I remember long wave and short wave

on the radio. Yes, don't ask me to explain the technology side of things because I will get hopelessly lost. But I can at least tell you what they stand for yeah what about antenna yeah well antenna obviously they were there entomologically speaking a long time before they were there technologically speaking because it's it's a reference to the antenna that you will find on the heads of insects and crustaceans and other things. So there's kind of sensory appendages. And then the idea is that you get a wire or another structure which receive a sensory to airborne radio waves.

And a radio aerial, I know that the BBC staff magazine used to be called aerial, but I think that has to do with the sprite, the god, the figure aerial. But also aerial is the thing that the waves connect that's how the sound waves are sent out or connected in some way what is an aerial well it's called an aerial simply because it's in the air so it goes back to the ancient greek meaning of the air so that's as simply as it comes and then we've used aerial since 1600s to mean flying in the air or taking place in the air or a creature or spirit of the air which I love and then in the early 1900s it was again it was it was something by which radio

waves were transmitted and received. Well clearly the technology is not your strong point and it certainly isn't mine though I'm familiar with in these early days of radio my father enjoyed playing with the wireless and he had a family one that his father had put it together, built this radio and used for the case some leaves from a dining room table. So a lovely sort of mahogany case and then put things together to make it work, including radio valves. It was all quite complicated, but they seem to understand it. Either you understand these things or you don't. I absolutely agree with you. quite complicated, but they seem to understand it. Either you understand these things or you don't. I absolutely agree with you. And I think anybody listening to us will know why we are not

electricians or technicians or whatever. I discovered having lived in my house for quite a few years that I had a second fuse box the other day that I had no knowledge of at all. And so it cost me a lot of money for an electrician to come over and discover it for me. And all I needed to do was flick a switch and everything came back on. That's how bad I am. But I can tell you about the vocabulary of DJs. That's what I want to hear about because I have been a disc jockey.

Have you been a disc jockey yet in your time? It depends. I think on Radio Oxford, they had sort of prescribed or pre-chosen songs and I would help press the button that brought them on. But I don't think I was never a turntablist or, you know, anybody who was a proper DJ. I began many years ago, more than 50 years ago, there's a radio station in Britain called LBC. And it was the first commercial radio station in

this country, started 50 years ago. And I was there on the very first day. And because it was the first commercial radio station, they didn't think people would necessarily listen to the advertisements. They thought they'd turn off when the advertisements began because there hadn't been commercial news broadcasting before. So they got me in to set a puzzle before every ad break. And we began on a Monday. So my first puzzle was take an everyday English word like Monday, M-O-N-D-A-Y, and turn it into another everyday English word. We'll give you the answer after the ad break to persuade people to listen to the ads. And then I came on after the ad say, yes,

Monday, you can rearrange the letters and make Dynamo. Listen to Dynamic, L-B-C, and on we went. And then later, I was the summer stand-in on radio 2 for Teddy Wogan on the breakfast program he used to do this is a famous British radio broadcaster and he had a summer holiday and they brought me in and it was a bit terrifying I got to learn no words like jingles and stings and beds, and I didn't really understand them. So maybe you can unpack some of those for me. I certainly can. So jingles, as you would expect, predate the radio use of them for a very long time.

So they go back to the 1700s, well, 1600s, I think, actually. And it was first a sound of clinking metal. Then it was a short verse. And then it became what we know today which are little short musical phrases and a sting is quite similar isn't it and i think it's called a sting because it's short and sharp so it's to do with the kind of brevity of it then we have beds which is what is in the background so it's as if the whole program or the radio output is kind of lying on this but it's sort of slightly whole programme or the radio output is kind of lying on

this, but it's sort of slightly unobtrusive. And that's instrumental music in the background. And the reason it's called a bed is it's there lying in the background and you are, the programme is lying on top of the bed. Yes. Don't rush from Jingle because you know all these things. You think me, we do too. I'm just gasping at this. I'm now realising there's a character in Dickens called Mr Jingle, isn't there? Is he in Pickwick Papers? And I now realise, of course, Victorians talked about Christmas jingles as being Christmas greetings, Christmas messages. You would send someone a Christmas jingle.

So it's really a much older word. I had no idea. It's basically to, well, it was the sound of small bells, as in jingle bell, and then a mingling of ringing sounds. And yeah, and then so on. And in poetry, it was to have alliteration and rhymes and other repetitions as well. So it was all about that kind of, you know, the sound effect, really. Lovely. Any more words from the world of radio to share with us?

Well, fairy dust is quite nice. So you might find fairy dust in a music mix. And that's when a DJ sort of introduces effects like echo or reverberation. And they can be wet or dry. So in sound effects and fairy dust, wet is the process sound and dry is the original sound so wet is that all that echo and reverberation and dry is the kind of you know the the absolutely the original version of it if you like um hot hot is a sound that is too loud and it's funny hot can mean so many different things in different professions so we talked before we're talking about telly that when I was first told as I was sitting in the countdown studio that I looked hot on the floor I was actually very flattered until I realized that hot meant looking shiny and it's sort of I suppose similar in music as well it's the sound that is too loud and then you

have a buzz track which or a chatter track, which is background sound, and that's recorded to cover edits on location. You'll know that we've recorded on location a lot. So the chatter track is the sort of background sound. And very often when you're recording something, you have the ambient noise as well, don't you, Giles? So whoever's recording the programme will just, you have to be completely silent and they will take in the sound of whatever room or studio or outside location that you are in. So those are all the sort of the sounds, but I love what is the words that are used by presenters as well. And I remember talking to Nicky Campbell, who's a very popular longstanding radio presenter in Britain. And he told me about having a disco and having a disco when

you are working on talk radio is not Dancing with John Travolta that's a discussion so it's a discussion between two people but a sneaky disco apparently is a discussion between guests who previously said I'm only talking to the presenter but then they can't help interrupting each other once the debate gets underway so that's ultimately what the presenter wants. But they've kind of sneaked it in. It's a sneaky disco. A sneaky disco. And then a donut is when a DJ will go to a correspondent who's on the road, who's in an outside location, who then interviews a guest and then hands back to the studio.

In other words, there's jam or something in the middle of this, which is why it's called a donut. And, oh my goodness, there's lots and lots on it like Rob Bonnet. Do you remember Rob Bonnet? I knew Rob Bonnet. Yeah. Well, there you go. Rob Bonnet lives very much in radio studio shorthand. It means I'm there, so I'm on it like Rob Bonnet.

Was Rob Bonnet always very quick? Yes, absolutely. One of the great joys of being very old is that I've met everybody who was ever alive, I feel. In fact, you're about the only living person I still know, because they've all died. But one of the people I loved listening to on the radio most, a voice I loved, was that of Richard Baker. Richard Baker is best remembered in this country as the newsreader. He read the early evening news and later the nine o'clock news on BBC television. But he also was a regular broadcaster on the radio.

And he used to do a programme called Start the Week. And he had a lovely voice and he was a lovely man. He lived to a good old age, well into his 90s. One of his sons told me that towards the end of his life, when he was living in some sheltered accommodation, he would, for the sake of other residents, he would, during the day, cut out articles from the newspaper. And then in his 90s, while everyone else was sitting having their evening meal, he would sit at the head of the table and read the news. So in his 90s, while everyone else was sitting having their evening meal, he would sit at the head of the table and read the news. So in his 90s, Richard Baker was still reading the news to other people in the old folks' home. I love that. His son, Andrew Baker, actually works on the Telegraph.

And I have written for him before. And he regularly tweets sort of memories of his dad, which is quite nice. Oh, lovely. Yeah. Yes. Well, the son I knew was called James Baker. And he and I worked at TVAM back in the 1980s. Did you ever used to start your broadcast with 1212?

1212. Yes, people do. Why is that? It's a sort of sound check thing, isn't it? It is a sound check. It's either what did you have for breakfast, which you were regularly asked by people checking your sound levels, one two one two which is more traditional i suppose and one is used apparently to provide a low frequency and two to provide a higher frequency so that they can check that the

mic is absorbing the different vocal frequencies and dealing with it all right because they sound quite different do they one two one two i suppose they do is it one two? Yes, I suppose there's a sort of modulation there in each of them. Of all the things you hear on the radio, if you do still listen to the radio. I do, yeah. Oh, you do? I'm now totally podcast devoted. Are you? I listen to the radio all the time, even sports.

I will listen to football. I will listen to golf on the radio. I find it more captivating than watching it. Isn't that strange? That is. And I can't do two, because I'm a bloke, I can't do two things at once. So I can't have radio on in the background. Either I'm listening to it or I'm not listening to it.

I sometimes listen to the radio when I'm washing the dishes late at night. And very late at night, I hear my favourite programme, which is the shipping forecast. Oh, I love the shipping forecast. Actually, the language of the shipping forecast is absolutely brilliant. We should talk about that. Maybe it's a purple extra one day. Oh, that's a nice idea.

Yes, let's do that. There's always so much to cover, isn't there? Let's do a separate episode dedicated to the shipping forecast. And if you want to know about the Purple Club and the extras that are available, just go to the Apple subs and you can find out more about it

shall we take a quick break let's take a break you know what's going through my head at the moment it's going to be an earworm all day sailing by do do do do do do do you remember good i love that you got a very sweet voice you're very musical hi i'm jesse tyler ferguson host of the podcast Dinners on Me. I take some of my favorite people out to dinner, including, yes, my Modern Family co-stars, like Ed O'Neill, who had limited prospects outside of acting. The only thing that I had that I could have done was organize crime. And Sofia Vergara, my very glamorous stepmom.

Well, why do you want to be comfortable? Or Julie Bowen, who had very special talents. I used to be the crier. Or my TV daughter, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, who did her fair share of child stunts. They made me do it over and over and over. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. on me wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Friedman. I'm Lee Alec Murray. And I'm Leah President. And this is Crunchyroll Presents The Anime Effect.

We are a new show breaking down the anime news, views, and shows you care about each and every week. I can't think of a better studio to bring something like this to life. We're covering all the classics. If I don't know a lot about Godzilla, which I do, but I'm trying to pretend that I don't. Hold it in.

And our current faves. Luffy must have his due. Tune in every week for the latest anime updates and possibly a few debates. I remember, what was that? Say what you're going to say and I'll circle back. You can listen to Crunchyroll Presents The effect every friday wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on crunchyroll or the crunchyroll youtube channel welcome back to something rhymes with purple and we're getting to our favorite bit of the show which is when we get to hear from you the purple people and you always have such fantastic questions so um we have had a lovely email from emily who says kia ora from altea roa

in new zealand and she's wondering where the term under the weather comes from and she finishes with na mihi nui which means thank you very much it's a great question and it's an enduring expression isn't it under the weather giles i like to say fobbly mobbly or sort of just a little bit meh but under the weather it predates all of those it's sort of originated on the high sea so we think it's part of nautical slang and the full expression was under the weather bow which was a bleak and cheerless place to be because the weather bow was the side experiencing the worst of the winds and the storms so that's the kind of theory that if you were under there you really weren't feeling very well but equally sailors who did become ill would be sent below deck to recover

and so they would be under the weather because they would be protected from it by not being up on deck so that's the idea there and it reminds me of above board as well, which often people think comes from being sort of on the deck, if you like, rather than below it. But actually, that comes from poker playing, because if players keep their hands above the table, which was known as a board, they seem to be playing fairly. So under the weather, which can mean feeling rather low, in fact, means the reverse of that. Under the weather means you're escaping the worst of the weather. low, in fact, means the reverse of that. Under the weather means you're escaping the worst of the weather. Well, it meant, yeah, no, it just, it basically meant that if you were sent below deck,

it meant you weren't feeling very well because that's where you would be being tended to. Ah, away from the weather. Fine. Yeah. Okay. Well, Ella Sykes has written in, Dear Susie and Giles, I'm a long time listener of Something Rides With Purple. We're very grateful to you for that. And if you're a newcomer, bear in mind there are more than 100 episodes. You can start at the beginning and take your time to catch up. Anyway, Ella says, I'm a student, and as students do, I enjoyed a late night out last week. As fun as it was at the time, by the following afternoon,

both my housemaid and I were flagging a bit and had to retreat to the sofa to watch mindless TV. Is that the way to describe Countdown? To watch mindless TV and eat a mountain of toast. This led me to wonder about the origin of the word flagging. I can't imagine how being tired or having dwindling energy has anything to do with flags. Please explain. Very interesting. Yeah, it is interesting, but it's simply a metaphor really for something that's flagging by hanging down or drooping if there's not enough wind to kind of buffet it into action it's kind of falling and it's quite languid if you like so it's simply the

idea of hanging down like a limp flag but what ella did remind me of is a fantastic word um from the past for when you are feeling much the worse for wear as she was that day after a heavy night out the night before you're feeling crapulent and crapulence actually goes all the way back to the romans for excess drink well it's basically following a night of debauch is how they would have used it so if you've had excess drinking eating partying anything that leaves you cram-bazzled, which if you remember means prematurely aged from excess partying, you will be feeling crapulent. Is crapulent related to crapulous?

Crapulous as in... What do you mean by crapulous? Well, is that a word? I mean, I felt you're not familiar with the word crapulous. I'm sure there is a word crapulous. Is there a word crapulous? Maybe not. Maybe I've invented it.

Maybe this is my moment. And this is my moment. My destiny calls me. Oh, dictionary is the Scots language. Here we go. Crapulous. I think it might mean the same thing. Yes, it means exactly the same thing.

Good. The first record is from 1700s. They're crapulous and shameful gluttony. There you are. So very similar. I thought it was a word that existed. What I wanted to ask you is, are these two words, crappulent and crappulous,

is that the origin of the word crap, meaning rubbish, terrible, awful? Ah, no. No, it's not actually. But that would be the more plausible etymology. The one that most people come up with is that it's somehow linked to Thomas Crapper and that Thomas Crapper in England invented the first flushing toilet.

He didn't actually. And as you will know, with your royal history knowledge, Giles, in fact, the first one of the first flushing toilets, I think, was basically Anne. So it went back a lot further than Thomas Crapper, who had a superb case of nominative determinism, where his name suited what he worked in, which was flushing toilets. We think that crap actually goes back to the Latin again, crapper, which meant either discarded husks of corn, or just dregs, basically, it was a kind of wasteful byproduct. And then it became the byproduct of the human body. So the crap part of crapulent and crapulous, what is the origin of that, the C-R-A-P? Well, I don't actually know if you're looking beyond Latin. I just know that in Latin, crapulentia, I think it was called, was exactly as described. It was whatever you were feeling from a night of debauchery,

as it is described in the dictionary. I'm just going to double check that we have this right. Yes, crapulentus, very much intoxicated. And there was also venolentus, which was very specifically following alcohol. Well, there you are, Ella. Now you know that if you're flagging, it's because you're like a drooping flag, virtually at half mast. But comfort is to be had from eating a mountain of toast. Is that what you would eat? I love toast. I love toast. Yes, it's the perfect hangover food.

And for me, it's, I felt like this actually when I was pregnant the second time. I just wanted calories and quite greasy calories. So I wanted chips, crisps, cake, you know, anything that was just stodged. That's what I want when I'm hungover, which doesn't happen very often, I have to say, these days. And for you, it doesn't happen at all, Giles, because you don't drink anymore. It doesn't happen at all. But I still, when I'm flagging, because one loses energy, the idea of collapsing on the sofa with some comfort TV and toast, slightly burnt. I know it's not good for you when it's slightly burnt,

but with a little bit too much butter and then a gentle bit of marmite on top. Yes. Oh, I just think it's wonderful. You can never have too much butter. And I cut it into little eights. I mean, I cut the toast up into little squares. Oh, really? Okay.

Which my mother used to call Jack and Jill's. I don't know why. Oh, not soldiers. Okay. No, no. Soldiers are when they're, that's what you dip into your eggs. Yes. yeah okay which my mother used to call jack and jills i don't know why oh not soldiers okay no no soldiers are when they're that's what you dip into your eggs yes um i don't know why they were called jack and jills we'll have to work that out um okay jack and jill went up the hill fetch a pail of water yeah no nothing to do with bread okay maybe we leave that with a purple yes i'm going to serve you some little jack and jill she would say little jack oh maybe there's a little

bite for jack a little bite for Jack, a little bite for Jill, and you could even it out. Little squares of toast were called Little Jack and Jill's. If you know the answer or if you've got a question, it is purple at somethingelse.com. Susie, I say, knows everything. She doesn't quite know everything, but she certainly knows how to choose some interesting words for each week.

What's the cheer you've got to offer us today? Well, are you a Simpsons fan, Giles? Of course I am. OK, so you all know the word cromulent, which I don't think I've featured in my trio before. So cromulent means acceptable or legitimate. And Simpsons fans will know this so well. It comes from a remark from Bart's teacher, Miss Crabapple, to his observation that a noble spirit embiggens the smallest man which became the catchphrase of Springfield and Miss Crabapple says embiggens I never heard that word before I came to Springfield and Lisa's teacher Miss Hoover says I don't know why it's a perfectly cromulent word and it's great

I love it it's now in the dictionary and and I use it quite a lot. So cromulent, meaning acceptable or legitimate. Very different word, named after, we were talking about entomology earlier and antennae. This was created by an American entomologist called F.W. Poos. And it's pooter. And a pooter is a suction bottle, one of those suction bottles that botanists use for collecting specimens, maybe insects as well. Pooter comes up a lot on Countdown. I just like the sound of it. P-O-O-T-E-R. Yes. Very good. You've read, of course, The Diary of a Nobody.

A very long time ago. It is, in my view, one of the funniest and most painful novels written in the English language. It's written by a pair of brothers, George and Whedon Grosmith, one of whom was famous for singing all the great patter songs in Gilbert and Sullivan. They were theatre people and they wrote this delightful book called The Diary of a Nobody, which for me, it's the diary written by a suburban man, a sort of lower middle class man with aspirations aspirations and it's both touching and hilarious and he is called Mr. Pooter. What's your third word? Well we're having a little bit of a day like this as we record. It's Rorky and Rorky R-A-W-K-Y is an old dialect word meaning foggy, damp and a little bit chilly

and it comes from Roke which is another dialect word meaning mist or drizzly rain. So it's a bit dreaky outside. Very good. A special poem this week. Sometimes I give you Shakespeare. Sometimes I give you Keats or Wordsworth or even modern and amusing poets from, you know, who could it be?

Spike Milligan, Roger McGough. But today we have a poem from a purple person. Oh, excellent. Kevin Westerman. He posted this on the Purple People Facebook page, which is, I think, quite unofficial, but we love people to be in touch in any which way they want. And here is a poem by Kevin Westerman.

Oh, what a joy it is to seek The derivation morphology of the words we speak. Whether fairly obvious or a tad oblique, Germanic, Latin, French or Greek, purple people must know from whence or whither came the words our oscillator emotions deliver. Ooh, excellent, Kevin. Congratulations. Brilliant. A lovely poem to read, enjoy and roll round the mouth. It's great to play with words, which is what we

try to do every week here in Purple Country. Indeed. And thank you for joining us and for being part of our lovely community. Do get in touch, as always. We have such fantastic correspondence from you. The address is purple at something else.com something rhymes with purple is a something else production produced by lawrence

bassett and harriet wells with additional production from steve ackerman jen mystery jay beal and i think he's so cromulent how do you more rocky to me anyway touch the fobbly it's gully